Symbolism and Power in Kidd's The Invention of Wings

Introduction

Sue Monk Kidd uses symbol and theme in The Invention of Wings to tell the story of Sarah Grimké, her sister Nina, and Sarah's slave Handful, whom Sarah vows to help to freedom over the course of her life. The novel is based on the historical figure of Sarah Grimké, an abolitionist and activist. To tell the story, Kidd uses the black triangles that Handful's mother stitches into her quilts to symbolize flight and freedom; likewise, the feathers that Handful and her mother collect to stuff the quilt symbolize the spiritual wings with which one can fly to freedom.

Kidd also applies the theme of power in both positive and negative terms. Sarah's trauma at witnessing the brutality of slavery causes her to develop a stutter, which renders her relatively powerless in terms of speaking her mind; her youth as a child further limits her standing in society. However, she obtains power through education: she reads everything in her father's library before he realizes this access is granting her too much independence, and as an adult she becomes an ardent writer who uses the power of the pen to advocate for abolition. This paper argues that the theme of power and the image of wings work together to show that when power is aligned with a spiritual good — such as that symbolized by the feathers and birds in Charlotte's quilts — real, positive social change can be effected.

The Feather as Symbol of Freedom

The symbol of the feather as a literary device — one that evokes the need to lift one's mind and heart toward higher things — is first introduced when Sarah goes to call Handful's mother Charlotte, who is stooping over to pick up feathers from the ground. The feathers are used to make comfortable quilts and beds for those who hold power. Sarah recognizes them only as "tidbits she scavenged…small downy feathers" (Kidd 30). Yet these tidbits possess the capacity to soar upward, as the reader soon discovers when Sarah startles Charlotte. Charlotte loses her grip on the feather, which "fluttered off on the sea wind. It flitted to the top of the high brick wall that enclosed the yard, snagging in the creeping fig" (Kidd 31).

The feather symbolizes the spirit that constantly yearns to be free — to climb over the brick walls erected by society and the institution of slavery — and the social contracts that prevent the spirit from achieving its aim even when it manages to soar. The creeping fig represents, in this sense, the social mores and doctrines that Sarah must eventually battle as an adult through her writing. Charlotte and Handful are always mindful of the spirit and the desire for freedom, a yearning symbolized in the quilts they make with black triangles — birds that represent the longing of the enslaved people who create comfortable things for their masters.

Power, Feathers, and the Souls of Black Folk

The theme of power is closely connected to the symbol of the feather. As Campbell points out, Kidd seeks in her books to empower women. For this reason, Kidd contrasts those who have power with those who do not by describing who possesses the feathers: "the white people on their feather beds, the slaves on their little pallets thin as wafers" (Kidd 140). Yet the fact that Charlotte and Handful are the ones who collect the feathers filling those beds shows that the enslaved are in touch with the spirit of freedom. Even if they cannot possess freedom outright, they carry it within their intellects, hearts, and wills: "The shape she loved was a triangle," Kidd writes (5). "A triangle on a quilt stands for a blackbird wing" (Kidd 59).

The blackbird wing symbolizes the souls of Black folk — a phrase popularized by W. E. B. Du Bois and used by Wilson to discuss the meaning of racial identity in the nineteenth century. The black triangles symbolize souls yearning to fly over the wall of slavery, much like the feather that rushes upward on the sea winds early in the novel. Together, these images form a coherent symbolic vocabulary through which Kidd communicates the inner life and aspirations of her enslaved characters.

Conclusion

Kidd uses symbolism — the feather, the black triangles — to convey the need for spirit and the yearning of the souls of Black folk for freedom. She shows that spirit and power must converge in order for change to take place. Sarah represents power; Handful represents spirit. Their synthesis is evident in Nina, who pushes Sarah to go further even when she is reluctant. Together, the unification of spirit and power creates an environment in which the cause of abolition becomes important to the entire nation.

Works Cited

Campbell, Colleen Carroll. "God & the Second Sex." First Things 176 (2007): 51.

Du Bois, W. E. B., and Manning Marable. Souls of Black Folk. New York: Routledge, 2015.

Kidd, Sue Monk. The Invention of Wings. New York: Viking, 2014.

Wilson, Kirt H. "Towards a Discursive Theory of Racial Identity: The Souls of Black Folk as a Response to Nineteenth-Century Biological Determinism." Western Journal of Communication 63.2 (1999): 193–215.